Gameplay Mechanics
The game can be broken down into three general things players can do: explore, interact and fight. Like all good RPGs, these will constitute the bulk of the game.
- Exploration
In FFCC, players assume the role of various young adults who must venture out into the wilderness to protect their village from a poisonous gas cloud. They must find special trees out in the wilderness that produce one magical droplet every two game years and return these droplets to their hometowns where magical crystals protect the town from the poisonous miasma. The trees are of course guarded by a host of creatures bent on killing the players. The passage of time seems to play an important role in the game, for as the years progress the challenges the players face grows increasingly stronger.
- Interaction
Like the other games in the Final Fantasy series, the story involves a character or group of characters journeying great distances throughout the world to complete a central quest, although many smaller quests will arise along the way. In the process, they will meet dozens of exciting people, fight off exotic creatures, discover hidden treasure and unfold a dramatic storyline. In FFCC, movement in the game is similar to the third-person follow-cam mode found in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. This type of movement is where players will spend the majority of their time.
For movement across large distances, the players go to the “world-map” view, which is a highly zoomed-out view of the world which players use to venture from town to town and other far-away locales.
- Combat
Combat in FFCC is real-time and takes place in the regular movement mode, much like in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or Secret of Mana.
Role-playing Elements
A big part of all role-playing games is selecting the type of character you will play. There are four races (character classes) that players can choose from in FFCC, each with its own unique strengths. A well-balanced party will draw upon the strengths of each race, which makes the game ideal to play with four players. The races are:
- Clavat: wields swords and have the best defense in the game
- Lilty: wields axes and have the best offense in the game
- Yuke: wields staffs and have the best magic in the game
- Selkie: wields bats and have the best agility in the game
As the players defeat monsters, they gain experience and “level up,” increasing in power in various ways. Yukes will specialize in magic and gain stronger spells for example, while Clavats will be able to wield more powerful weapons.
The story unfolds as the players journey from territory to territory, talking with people and completing quests set before them. Cut scenes are also a big part of RPGs, and FFCC is no exception. These movie-like breaks in the game further enhance the story and often come at critical points in the game (after the party completes an important quest or arrives at a new area for example). It is likely that much of the story will involve discovering the mystery behind the miasma – what (or who) is causing it, understanding the nature of the trees and magic droplets and watching your characters grow from a party of children into adults.
One interesting role-playing aspect of FFCC is that the players can and should interact with their parents in the game. The players actually choose the occupation of their parents at the start of the game, and based upon this occupation the parents will aid the players in various ways. Blacksmith parents for example will make new equipment for the players, merchant parents will sell rare items, alchemist parents can make potions, and so on.
Additionally, players will have periodic opportunities throughout the game to write home or send gifts to their parents. Players with good relationships with their parents are more likely to receive gifts from them in return.
Multiplayer and Connectivity Features
The most unique aspect of FFCC is that up to four players can play at once utilizing a Game Boy Advance connected to the GCN via a link cable. When more than one player wishes to play the game, each player is required to play with a GBA. Multi-player mode allows several things to happen:
- Players can cast larger spells by working together to join their magicite crystals in different combinations.
- Players use the GBA to switch between various attack commands, spells, items and equipment. This allows the game to proceed uninterrupted when one player wants to make an adjustment in the middle of a battle.
- When the players enter a dungeon or a cave (which happens quite often in Final Fantasy games), each player’s GBA screen will show different information. A map will appear on one player’s GBA, and a radar showing monster locations will appear on another. Players must therefore communicate the information to each other to venture safely through each dungeon, which adds a unique interactivity element to playing FFCC.
- The GBA also has the added benefit of clearing away information clutter from the game screen itself, so that players can get a clear view of the game without obscuring the screen with excess information.